Elijah Wood/Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers Interview by Paul Fischer

Elijah Wood turns up for our interview in a New York hotel room with
his hair closely cropped. An interesting cut for the young actor whose
career has been revitalized as a result of the Lord of the Rings
trilogy. Suggesting he had his hair shorn for a new film role, the
21-year old former child star says

'it was just for me. I wanted to do
it for a long time and I just figured the time was right to do it
now.'

Sporting a slight goatee beard and feeling far more relaxed than
the last time we chatted a year ago, it's now easy for the actor to
look back on the success of the first movie and examine its effect on
Wood's career.

'I'd never been involved in anything so huge', explains
Elijah. 'I think there were opportunities and scripts that were coming
my way that were more the kinds of things I've been wanting to do for
a while, so opportunities became more available.' But the actor also
insists that those opportunities were part of a progression in his
later career.

'It's not as if the doors were opened, but rather a
three year progression', insists Wood. 'It's also up to me to continue
working and doing things I want to do.' Things such as Try Seventeen,
an ensemble Indie drama which is as far removed from Rings as you can
get. 'I really wanted to do something smaller. It's all about the
script. If the script is quality, no matter how big or small it is,
then I want to be a part of it.'

However, there is nothing small about the second installment of Lord
of the Rings. The three-hour epic is a much darker component of the
Tolkien tale. This time around, the Fellowship has been broken.
Boromir (Sean Bean) is dead, Frodo Baggins (Wood) and Samwise Gamgee
(Sean Astin) have gone to Mordor alone to destroy the One Ring. Part
of the duo's journey also includes one of the Ring's original bearers,
the creature Gollum (Andy Serkis), who has tracked Frodo and Sam down
in search of his 'precious', but is captured by the Hobbits and used
as a way to lead them to Mt. Doom. Though all three films were shot
simultaneously two years ago, Wood recalls shooting these sequences
during which the Ring's stranglehold on Frodo begins. Though on screen
less than in its predecessor, Wood had to embark on some challenging
acting this time around.

'Even though we were skipping around quite a
lot, I certainly realized that the weight of that particular journey,
what happens to Frodo and how profound it is, meant some huge demands
on me as an actor. It was a real effort on my part to try and manifest
all of that, and not only show the negative side of what the ring's
doing to him, but also make it a progression.'

As dark and challenging it was to work on that, for Elijah, it's the
third film, next year's Return of the King, which he is most excited
about. 'As opposed to this movie, the third movie is the most
complete,' Wood says. 'This movie was very complicated and difficult
to iron out in terms of all the different narrative elements. How do
you make a movie with these three cut up stories and make them blend
in such a way that it keeps the momentum, has a through-line and
message, yet has emotion with all this darkness. The third movie, on
the other hand, is a conclusion and a very ironed out thing. It was
always very clear with the third movie what it was going to be about
and how it was going to be filmed and ended.'

To further whet our
appetite, Wood also agrees that the third film 'is more emotional and
is the saddest and darkest of the three. Everything is at stake and
everyone loses a little bit. The great thing about Tolkien is, that
even when there's great triumph, there's also great loss and everybody
loses to a certain degree in the next story, which I love. I also
loved working on it and taking Frodo to that extreme and so I'm very
excited for people to see THAT movie, because it's going to freak
people out, especially having been with these characters for so long.'

Wood, too, has been with Frodo for three years, from initial
production over an 18-month period, to re-shoots and pick ups which
remain ongoing. Soon it will be time to finally put Frodo behind him,
which Elijah concedes will be tough. 'It's going to be hard especially
going back to New Zealand to film revisions there for the last time,
and tidy up the third film.'

Having shot all three films together, looking back on the experience,
Wood says there were no disadvantages to working that way and he has
no regrets. 'The great thing about filming all three at once, was that
it was capturing a moment in these movies. It's all one story so it
all takes place in a certain period of time from the moment they set
out. So in doing that, there's continuity in the moment and there's
something really important in that moment. We were all in New Zealand
for that length of time working our asses off for that length of time,
experiencing everything as people in real time, and the trials and
tribulations of actually making these movies. So all of that energy
got fused into these films.' Wood also agrees that there are parallels
between Frodo's arduous journey on screen, and those of Elijah
himself, 'in the sense that I had a responsibility to fulfill this
role; I was out of MY element as Frodo was out of his carrying out
this responsibility on this journey. Everyone felt like that and that
THEIR journeys mirrored that of their characters. I knew it was going
to be like that which was part of why I was so excited to go to New
Zealand to work on them.'

Elijah Wood has done a lot of growing up of late. It seems an eternity
ago when the 9-year old began to make an impact on films such as
Avalon, Radio Flyer, Forever Young, Huck Finn and The Good Son. He
made a gradual segue into older teen roles in Flipper and The Ice
Storm, before proving he has the chops to make it as an adult actor in
the Rings trilogy. Clearly, Wood has succeeded where other child
actors have stumbled, and as to why he has succeeded where others
failed, the actor finds it difficult to figure out. 'It's difficult to
have any perspective on it when you're in the middle of ir,' Wood
says. 'I think I was just lucky enough to keep working. It was
probably The Ice Storm that had a lot to do with pushing me into more
mature, adult-oriented roles. The success of that film and its quality
only make you better as an actor and had a lot to do with how I was
perceived later on.'

Lord of the Rings will continue to effect the young actor years after
the final one comes out in 2003. His friendships with many of his cast
members have continued, Wood says. 'We vacation together a lot, hang
out and ogle women collectively. After all, you're only young once,
right''